Just speaking for myself, if I'm in the market for a commodity-type item, I'm buying based on price. At this point, all types of items are falling into the commodity category, such as pocket calculators, dish washing liquid, fax machines and garbage cans.
If I want to buy, say, a $1,000 Herman Miller chair I'd go to the mom & pop store. But I don't buy many $1,000 chairs per year. All told I spend far more than $1,000 a year on commodity type items.